I have a friend who doesn't know what a sourdough starter is. Worrying, to say the least. What's even more worrying is that she still ordered it and when it arrived, asked me to guide her through "a quick recipe" on the phone. "I have an hour before my boyfriend arrives and I want to surprise him with a homemade bread," she naively begged.
Where do I start?
Tartine's ...

Now that the sourdough starter recipe is finalized, I can conquer all the sourdough bread recipes I've been dreaming about for years.
The first on the list is Tartine Bakery's Basic Country Bread.
Before I share that adventure (and what an adventure it was), I wanted to summarize the sourdough starter recipe in a single post and answer a very important question every beginner will eventually ask: How do ...

The sourdough starter is ready at last!
Remember how it rose yesterday? Looks like it rose almost twice as much after the last feeding.
The napkin on top kept it from overflowing... Almost.
A teaspoon of it has found its way, but the rest is fine.

Look at that! Very exciting. There's quite a significant rise today.
The sourdough starter rose by approximately an inch and a half.
If I get a similar result tomorrow, I'll bake my first sourdough bread.

Yet another uneventful day. The sourdough starter looks pretty much the same as yesterday.
The starter has to ferment predictably (rising and falling after each feeding) before preparing the leaven.
Needless to say, this much of rise is not enough.